CONSIDERATIONS FOR TRANSLATING "GRANDE SERTÃO: VEREDAS" INTO LIBRAS - Revista da Anpoll
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18309/anp.v1i44.1143
CONSIDERATIONS FOR TRANSLATING “GRANDE SERTÃO:
VEREDAS” INTO LIBRAS
Rachel Sutton-Spence
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brasil
ABSTRACT: This essay provides an annotated translation
with commentary of the title and opening three short sentences
of João Guimarães Rosa’s “Grande Sertão: Veredas” from
Portuguese into Brazilian Sign Language, Libras. A Libras
translation uses elements of space and highly iconic structures
to recreate the story is a visual form. The commentary here
considers the challenges involved in translating the brief
section of the Portuguese text, including accommodation of
deaf literary norms to those of contemporary Brazilian society,
the search for appropriate Libras signs for the regionally
specific context of the novel, the needs of a deaf audience to
see the visual aspects of the story, and the decisions made on
how to represent Guimarães Rosa’s idiosyncratic style of
Portuguese in Libras. It highlights the importance of the sign
language translator working as a “translator-actor” where the
written text told in first person is translated into Libras,
producing a translation that is embodied and presented by the
translator, who takes the role of the narrator’s “I”.
KEYWORDS: Libras; Translation; Translator-Actor;
Deaf Translation Norms; Grande Sertão: Veredas
RESUMO: Este artigo apresenta uma tradução anotada
com comentários sobre o título e as três frases iniciais de
“Grande Sertão: Veredas” de João Guimarães Rosa, do
português para a língua brasileira de sinais, Libras. A
tradução em Libras usa elementos do espaço e estruturas
altamente icônicas para recriar a história em uma forma
visual. O comentário apresentado considera os desafios
envolvidos na tradução desse pequeno trecho do texto em
português, incluindo a acomodação de normas literárias
surdas às da sociedade brasileira contemporânea, a busca
de sinais apropriados de Libras para o contexto
regionalmente específico do romance, as necessidades de
um público surdo para ver os aspectos visuais da história,
e as decisões tomadas sobre como representar o estilo
idiossincrático do português de Guimarães Rosa em
Libras. Destaca-se a importância do tradutor de língua de
sinais trabalhar como “tradutor-ator”, no qual o texto
escrito em primeira pessoa é traduzido em libras,
Revista da Anpoll v. 1, nº 44, p. 192-206, Florianópolis, Jan./Abr. 2018 192Rachel Sutton-Spence Considerations for Translating “Grande sertão: veredas” into Libras
produzindo uma tradução que é incorporada e apresentada
pelo tradutor, que assume o papel do eu narrativo.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Libras; Tradução; Tradutor-ator;
Normas de tradução surda; Grande sertão: veredas
Revista da Anpoll v. 1, nº 44, p. 192-206, Florianópolis, Jan./Abr. 2018 193Rachel Sutton-Spence Considerations for Translating “Grande sertão: veredas” into Libras
INTRODUCTION
This essay provides an annotated translation with commentary of the title
and opening three short sentences of João Guimarães Rosa’s “Grande Sertão:
Veredas” from Portuguese into Libras:
Grande Sertão: Veredas
– Nonada. Tiros que o senhor ouviu foram de briga de homem
não. Deus esteja.1
I consider the challenges involved in such a translation, including
accommodation of deaf literary norms to those of contemporary Brazilian society,
the search for the appropriate Libras signs, the needs of a deaf audience to see the
visual aspects of the story, the visible role of the translator as both actor and
translator, and the decisions made on how to represent Guimarães Rosa’s
idiosyncratic style of Portuguese in Libras.
“Grande Sertão: Veredas” (Rosa, 1956), is widely considered a classic in
Brazilian literature. The story is set around the start of the 20th century, and told
as a first-person narrative by an elderly prosperous farmer, Riobaldo, to a visiting
“man from the city”, who plays no active role in the book. The story tells of
Riobaldo’s earlier life as a jagunço, or independent armed fighter, in the north-
east of Brazil, specifically in northern Minas Gerais. The language in the book is
grammatically and lexically challenging, using a mixture of archaic and regional
dialect forms, liberally mixed with words, phrases and other constructions made
up by Guimarães Rosa, but with an authentic feel.
The decision to attempt a translation of the opening lines into Libras was
made after seeing Professor Berthold Zilly’s comparison of the translations of
these words into various European languages2 during his course entitled “Análise
de texto e análise de tradução. Grande Sertão: Veredas de João Guimarães Rosa e
suas traduções” from April to June 2016, which gave a clear understanding of the
complexities of creating a good literary translation of a Brazilian classic. I
undertook this translation with two colleagues, Klícia Araújo de Campos and
Márcia Felício.
Our work was done to further two areas of understanding translation.
Firstly, we wanted to provide one more comparison to the translations of the other
written languages, with commentary, using Libras, as a language unrelated to any
of these languages and in a different modality, in the hope that it would allow
other translators to gain a broader understanding of the complexities of translating
the work. Secondly, we wanted to further research on literary sign language
translation. Translation of children’s literature into Libras is not uncommon, but
there are very few translations of longer prose work for adults, although the
translations by Heloise Grippe and Roberto Gomes de Lima of works by
1
First edition
2
English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian – although a translation into Hebrew
has recently become available
Revista da Anpoll v. 1, nº 44, p. 192-206, Florianópolis, Jan./Abr. 2018 194Rachel Sutton-Spence Considerations for Translating “Grande sertão: veredas” into Libras
Machado de Assis and José de Alencar are notable exceptions (KARNOPP,
2008). There has been some research into the process of literary translation into
sign languages, especially of poetry (EDDY, 2002; BARROS, 2015; SPOONER,
2016) and of children’s literature (RAMOS, 2009) but very little into the analysis
of prose translation of materials aimed at adults, and we wished to further this.
Sign languages have frequently been devalued by hearing society (and
even by deaf people who have been taught that their language is inferior to
spoken languages such as Portuguese). Much of the language of the northeast has
also been devalued by speakers of standard Portuguese and the use of the regional
and social dialect in “Grande Sertão: Veredas” was a political act at the time of
publication in 1956. Therefore, the translation of what has now become a highly
respected literary text such as “Grande Sertão: Veredas” into Libras can also be
seen as a political act of asserting the status of Libras (BENJAMIN, 2000;
BRISSET, 2000, SPOONER 2016). Additionally, it can provide access to
Brazilian literature that is otherwise inaccessible to Brazilian deaf audiences for
whom Portuguese is their second language. A work such as “Grande Sertão:
Veredas” is especially challenging because of its language and literary style, and
a signed translation can help signers share in wider Brazilian society3. In many
cases, deaf audiences are unfamiliar with concepts described in the literature as
well as with the language. Thus, the translator needs to be aware of when to
translate words and when truly to “interpret” them. In our translation, we
sometimes needed to create signs to fill lexical gaps that would explain to
audiences a flavour of what the word meant without explaining it.
Traditionally, translators have been encouraged to work as ‘invisible’
mediators between the author and the readership of another language, so that
readers barely notice that they are reading a translation (VENUTI, 2013).
Literary translations from written Portuguese into written Libras (using scripts
such as Sign Writing) also leave the sign translator invisible but such translations
are rare (KARNOPP, ROSA and HESSEL, 2011). In a signed Libras translation,
however, the translator is visible and becomes a performer of the translated text.
The concept of translator-actors is well-established in Brazil, following the work
of Quadros and Souza (2008) who recognised that the embodied performance of
any translation into sign language requires the corporal performance of an actor.
However, the idea has not been developed in the more dramatic, literary sense of
an “actor artist”. Spooner et al (2018) suggest that the role of literary translators
between written and signed languages might be recast as a special case of
“translator-actors,” because they add an embodied visual performance component
to traditional literary translations. Even though a literary translation from
Portuguese to Libras is a linguistic task, Spooner et al note that successful
translations into sign language are characterised by performance of visual
imagery. In our translation of “Grande Sertão: Veredas”, we attempt to create
powerful visual images in which the translator is also the actor of the narration.
3
See Campos and Sutton-Spence, 2016, making a similar point about the translation of
Cordel literature from the north-east of Brazil.
Revista da Anpoll v. 1, nº 44, p. 192-206, Florianópolis, Jan./Abr. 2018 195Rachel Sutton-Spence Considerations for Translating “Grande sertão: veredas” into Libras
The implications of the embodied translator in literary sign language are
wide-reaching. Sign language poetry “speak[s] the self of the poet differently”
(ROSE, 2006, p. 131) from written poetry (which is detached from the poet’s
voice and body), because there is “no separation between artist and art, poet and
poem” (ROSE, 2006, p. 134) in the poet-performer’s body. This applies just as
strongly to the translator-performer’s body. Consequently, as Rose notes,”[t]he
literary power of ASL4 literature is defined by, and coexistent with, its theatrical
or performative power” (ROSE, 2006, p. 131) and this has major implications for
the translator working from the written text into the performed signed text. Rose
questions what happens to an ASL literary text when it is signed in the same
language by another person, and we see that translators face a similar question. In
our specific case study, we need to consider that the translator actor is embodying
the character of the retired jagunço Riobaldo, created by the author Guimarães
Rosa. For a translator, the challenge is to integrate the author’s style, in parallel
with performing the character’s style, to achieve the right balance between the
writer’s presence, the character’s “I” and the interpreted “I”.
Dirksen Bauman notes that
Signing through an interpreter […] precludes the Deaf “I”, as
such, from being received in the hearing world, for once it is
spoken by the interpreter, the “I” is no longer autobiographical
but, rather, a biographical rendition spoken by the interpreter in
the first-person singular.... As this new “I” embarks on a
narrative journey through a body to which it no longer bears
reference, it is subjected to the vicissitudes of a stranger’s
memory, ideologies, voice, skills, alertness, sexuality,
regionality, ethnicity, gender, dress, hairstyle, grammar,
education and more. (1996, p. 49-50).
This also occurs when the translator of a written text takes the storied “I”
on its narrative journey in sign language. Although this shift is an issue for any
translator in any modality, when the signing translator becomes visible, their
personal “demographic profile” is foregrounded, especially if it is noticeably
different from that of the author or the character. Most ASL-English interpreters
are white, female and under 40 (MACDOUGALL, 2012), and the pattern is
probably not dissimilar in Brazil. Although Gouadec (2007, p. 89) notes that most
translators of written texts are also women, such translators are “invisible” as
their work is presented entirely in the disembodied written form. Wilcox (2003,
p. 389) raises the question of “whether the visual display of an actual signer—a
person whom we may all recognize, whose history we know, and whose
personality we see in every nuanced articulation—is the same as an anonymous
written word”. His implication is that it is not. Audiences seeing a Libras
translation could potentially perceive conflicts in its delivery such as a young
woman translator performing the character of the elderly man (as in the case of
our translation). The ethnicity or regional affiliation of the translator may also
4
American Sign Language
Revista da Anpoll v. 1, nº 44, p. 192-206, Florianópolis, Jan./Abr. 2018 196Rachel Sutton-Spence Considerations for Translating “Grande sertão: veredas” into Libras
effect the audience’s engagement with the text so that, in the case of “Grande
Sertão: Veredas”, an interpreter who is clearly of northern-European descent (for
example) may inspire less confidence than someone who conforms to the physical
expectations of a “north-eastern Brazilian”.
Literary translation is not literal, and translators aim for “fidelity” by
reconstructing “contextual significance” in the text, using analogous forms of
expression in the target language that are comparable to the intention of the
original text (SPOONER, 2016). Venuti notes that the work of a literary translator
is to de-contextualize and re-contextualize the text for a different linguistic and
cultural audience (VENUTI, 2013). This is what we aimed for in our translation
of “Grande Sertão: Veredas”.
Libras has a strong (unwritten) literary tradition, with its own norms
(TOURY, 2012, STONE 2009) that can guide translators working into Libras. As
it is a visual and spatial language, its literature draws upon the resources made
available by the visual medium (ROSE, 1992; PETERS, 2000; ROSE, 2006;
SUTTON-SPENCE and KANEKO, 2016). Thus, elements such as the speed of
signing, the position of the hands in space, the choice of handshape used in the
selected signs and ways to incorporate the appearance and behaviour of characters
in a text, especially through facial expression, are of great importance for a Libras
translation (BARROS, 2015).
Spooner notes that:
the ASL-English translator must make deliberate decisions
about how to interpret and “perform” various characters as the
text unfold. For instance, if the translator performs a character as
being more (or less) evil, insane, collected, or on the verge of a
breakdown than the author intended (or if it was meant to be
ambiguous for the readers), this interpretation becomes a part of
the translation. If the performance is biased or inaccurate, it may
skew the audience’s understanding of the text. (2016, p. 71)
A further consideration for our translation is that many signs in Libras are
visually motivated. For example, in our study we researched the various signs in
Libras that are used to mean the Portuguese word ‘Sertão’, and found that each
sign is motivated by different imagery associated metonymically with the concept
of Sertão, such as drought, small farms, cactus vegetation, stunted vegetation,
cattle, or an empty expanse. This visual metonymy can work to the translator’s
advantage, for example, when introducing a new idea that does not need
explaining, but can also be a challenge when attempting to choose a sign that
necessarily reduces the ambiguity in the original work or suggests a different
meaning, as I will describe in the case here.
João Guimarães Rosa explicitly wanted to unsettle his readers who may
have become complacent about the dominance of standard Portuguese, by using
non-standard forms of Portuguese that are more akin to oral patterns of speech
(ZILLY, 2013). As Libras is also unwritten and shares linguistic patterns with
oral speech, many of the perceived oddities in Guimarães Rosa’s work are not
odd when rendered in Libras. Considering the debate about “foreignisation” or
Revista da Anpoll v. 1, nº 44, p. 192-206, Florianópolis, Jan./Abr. 2018 197Rachel Sutton-Spence Considerations for Translating “Grande sertão: veredas” into Libras
“domestication” of a text, such as discussed in great depth by Venuti (1994), we
decided to lean towards a translation that is linguistically more domesticated. Our
main rationale for this is that deaf people already face so many barriers to access
Brazilian literature that deliberate obscuration to match Guimarães Rosa’s
intention would be counter-productive. Additionally, the literary form of Libras is
already markedly different from the daily form of signing. We aimed, therefore,
to produce a clearly understandable, but nevertheless visually powerful, Libras
text that uses literary devices recognised within the Deaf community.
For our work, we followed the rationale described by Zilly (2013), using a
process of close reading and micro-analysis, taking each word and punctuation
mark in the title and opening section, and considering its meaning in the
immediate context and in the broader context of the book, as well as in the wider
social, political and historical context of the setting of the book (a macro-
analysis).
THE TITLE
Zilly has observed that:
A title should give some indication or make certain insinuations
about the plot, the place, the period, the characters, the narrative
technique of the work in question, keeping a careful balance
between information and mystery, to pique the reader’s interest
(Zilly, 2013, p. 315. Translation mine5)
This guided us in our translation of the title.
SERTÃO
The word Sertão that occurs in the titles of the two great literary works of
Euclides da Cunha (“Os Sertões”) and Guimarães Rosa (“Grande Sertão:
Veredas”) has been translated into English as “Backlands” (“Os Sertões” as
“Rebellion in the Backlands” translated by Samuel Putnam and “Grande Sertão:
Veredas” as “The Devil to pay in the Backlands” translated by James Taylor and
Harriet de Onís). However, the two books present very different aspects of the
idea of the Sertão region. Da Cunha’s Sertão is arid and barren, whereas the
Sertão of Guimarães Rosa is a vast expanse of largely uninhabited, but more
hospitable, land. This presents the first difficulty for our translation because
although there are various signs in Libras to refer to “Sertão”, the better-known
5
“Um título deve dar alguns indícios ou fazer determinadas insinuações sobre a trama, o
lugar, a época, os personagens, a técnica narrativa da obra em questão, mantendo um
certo equilíbrio entre informação e enigma, para atiçar a curiosidade do leitor”
Revista da Anpoll v. 1, nº 44, p. 192-206, Florianópolis, Jan./Abr. 2018 198Rachel Sutton-Spence Considerations for Translating “Grande sertão: veredas” into Libras
signs reflect aridity. There is a sign that metonymically reflects the more fertile
agricultural aspect of the Sertão of Minas Gerais, referring to a bull and farms,
but this sign fits less metaphorically with the idea of the book that the Sertão is a
complicated tangle of barriers, through which the contrasting “veredas” cut a
clearer path.
Research on various sign languages has shown an association between
handshapes in sign language which are bent or “clawed” at the joints and negative
connotations (KANEKO, 2011; SUTTON-SPENCE, 2005). As we wanted to
show the contrast between the two main words in the title, we opted for the sign
6
SERTÃO that uses a clawed ‘5’ handshape (that is, with all five fingers open and
spread) on both hands. It is a widely-known sign and although it refers to the
stunted vegetation more suited to da Cunha’s Sertão than Guimarães Rosa’s, we
decided that the symbolic potential for the sign outweighed the metonymy behind
it.
Other signs that use ‘clawed’ handshapes include CONFLICT, DEVIL, WAR,
SHOTS, FIGHTING, VIOLENCE, INTENSE-SUN and DIFFICULTY, all of which are either
mentioned or implied in the opening section of the book and later parts. Thus the
form of the sign SERTÃO fits the context of the work better, even if the implication
of drought is slightly misleading.
GRANDE
The sign we chose for the word Sertão also has the advantage that it can be
moved freely through space to make it larger, implying by analogy a larger area,
allowing us to incorporate the idea of “Grande” directly into the sign SERTÃO to
create a readily understandable single sign GRANDE-SERTÃO. This created an
aesthetic symmetry of one sign to the left and one to the right of the colon that
provides the axis for the title “Grande Sertão: Veredas”. We also found that we
could close the hands as the sign moved inwards towards the body to create a
greater sensation of suffering (hunger, poverty, war, drought and emotional
tension) that would emphasise the negative side of ‘Sertão” in preparation for the
relief of “veredas”.
THE COLON:
Close reading requires us to pay attention to punctuation of the text as well
as the words. We chose not to represent the colon directly because the vertical
axis dividing the signing space can substitute for it in a more satisfyingly visual
way. We decided to use the different placement of the signs SERTÃO and VEREDAS
6
We will follow the convention in sign language studies that small caps represent signed
glosses.
Revista da Anpoll v. 1, nº 44, p. 192-206, Florianópolis, Jan./Abr. 2018 199Rachel Sutton-Spence Considerations for Translating “Grande sertão: veredas” into Libras
to show a comparison between the two opposing ideas, being of a problem and a
solution, or a confused pathway and a clear way out.
We could have placed the sign VEREDAS in the middle of the sign GRANDE-
SERTÃO, which would have been aesthetically neater, and would have suggested
that the path out of the problem lay within it. However, we decided to place it on
the opposing side so that the two concepts were physically separated to show their
separate natures, reflecting more closely the colon punctuation mark.
VEREDAS
Unlike the sign SERTÃO, there is no well-known sign VEREDAS (CAMPOS,
2017). We could have used transliteration by fingerspelling the word, to
reproduce its Portuguese form in Libras using manual letters. This transliteration
is a common device for representing written words in Libras (NASCIMENTO,
2009) and is a tactic that Zilly (2013) considers for his German readership, to
simply leave the word untranslated. We decided against it for three reasons.
Firstly, it would be an unnecessary challenge for a Deaf audience; secondly,
fingerspelling is actively repressed in signed literary works (RYAN, 1993);
finally, a signed translation would allow for a more aesthetic solution.
We chose to create a neologism that blended the movement and spatial
arrangement of the hands that suggest a river, with handshapes that could be
interpreted as TREES-ALONG-A-RIVER-BANK. This sign is also made with the
relaxed ‘5’ handshape, but with the fingers open, to provide a positive contrast
with the tenser, clawed ‘5’ handshape of GRANDE-SERTÃO. The movement offers a
suggestion of the idea of a pathway. To emphasise the contrast between the two
sides of the title, GRANDE-SERTÃO is made with a more ‘tense’ facial expression
and VEREDAS is made with a more relaxed facial expression.
FIRST THREE SENTENCES FOR TRANSLATION
– Nonada. Tiros que o senhor ouviu foram de briga de homem
não. Deus esteja.
It’s nothing. The shots you heard were not men fighting. God be
praised. (Translation James Taylor and Harriet de Onís, 1963)1
1
First edition
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THE SPEECH MARK
We know from the speech mark that Riobaldo is speaking. Readers of the
written text can choose their image of Riobaldo, perhaps based on their
encyclopaedic knowledge, and construct it as the narrative progresses, but the
Libras translator must take the part of an actor, and incorporate the character of
Riobaldo as narrator from the first sign so that the audience can see it. This
incorporation of a character is recognised within sign language literature (RYAN
1993; SUTTON-SPENCE & KANEKO 2016) and its skilful production is highly
valued in the Deaf community, so getting it right from the outset is crucial to a
translation. We chose to use non-manual elements and a style of signing that
would suggest a confident older man, perhaps with elements of pride, tranquillity
and sincerity.
NONADA.
“It’s nothing.”
This word, “Nonada”, essentially a neologism in Portuguese (although not
in Spanish), has been a challenge to translators. We decided to domesticate it,
because it is the first sign of the text and there is already a lot for the audience to
take on board in this story told in real time. We chose the standard Libras sign
glossed in Portuguese as NADA, placed to the side of the signer to show lack of
concern (following the cognitive metaphor that LACK OF CONCERN IS
FURTHER FROM THE BODY). We moved the signer’s trunk away from the
sign and used a facial expression of unconcerned dismissal of an idea to highlight
that the speaker was totally unconcerned and thus the audience should be, too.
TIROS QUE O SENHOR OUVIU
“The shots you heard” (translation James Taylor and Harriet de Onís, 1963) or
maybe “The shots that you heard, Sir”
Libras does not use articles, so the lack of definite article before “tiros”,
while marked in Portuguese, is not a problem for a Libras audience. We decided
not to make any further issue of this.
Shots in Libras are shown metonymically through the image of a gun
firing. Thus we need to decide what sort of gun is being fired. The shots from a
rifle, shotgun or revolver will be shown differently. As we find out soon in the
story that the men on the farm were probably shooting a mutant calf, we can
Revista da Anpoll v. 1, nº 44, p. 192-206, Florianópolis, Jan./Abr. 2018 201Rachel Sutton-Spence Considerations for Translating “Grande sertão: veredas” into Libras
assume that the gun was a shotgun. This shows the importance of considering the
larger context of the text before choosing a sign.
We also need to know how many shots were fired. In Portuguese, the
plural marker –s simply tells us that there was more than one shot. Libras
distinguishes 1, 2, 3 or ‘many’ shots, so we need to show information in the
signed translation that is not present in the text. However, as we know the men
are killing a calf, we can assume it was no more than two. We opted to show the
gun firing twice and in the same direction.
Libras does not mark honorifics in the same way as Portuguese. A similar
problem exists with the English translation ‘you’, but that can be resolved,
partially at least, with the addition of the word “Sir”. However, the sign SENHOR is
usually reserved to mean LORD in a religious context and would be inappropriate
here. As Libras does not even need to use the sign YOU if it is obvious where the
addressee is, we opted simply to use the direction of gaze towards where we
selected to place the (non-participating) interlocutor. In keeping with Silva’s
research on formality in Libras (SILVA, 2013) we chose to use a respectful facial
expression to match the idea that a man confident in his social standing such as
Riobaldo is nevertheless being polite to his guest.
The idea of hearing anything suggests that neither character is deaf.
However, the text is being presented in the language of deaf people to a deaf
audience. A thoroughly domesticated translation for a deaf audience might
substitute the idea of a flock of startled birds flying, to show visually that shots
had been fired. A foreignised text for deaf audiences refers to hearing a noise.
We chose the latter, as being truer to the text, on the grounds that deaf audiences
are familiar with the idea that hearing people react to sounds, and creating deaf
characters would be an adaptation well beyond the original author’s intention.
FORAM DE BRIGA DE HOMEM NÃO.
“were not men fighting.” (translation James Taylor and Harriet de Onís, 1963)
The Libras sign FIGHT does not show what type of fight was happening,
although its handshape may imply several people fighting. We know from the
context of shots, however, that the fighting would be construed as a gunfight and,
if there were only two shots, then they must have been between no more than two
men. We chose, therefore, to use a neologistic sign FIGHT-BY-SHOOTING using
two hands, each in the classifier handshape representing a gun being fired. We
retained the facial expression that goes with the sign FIGHT.
In Portuguese, the phrase-final negation “não” is marked, but it is not in
Libras. Moving it away from phrase-final position in the Libras translation would
only make it seem like badly-transliterated Portuguese if moved to be phrase-
initial, or would make it simply meaningless if moved to anywhere else, so we
left the negation at the end. We chose the accompanying negating facial
expression and head-movement as one in keeping with Riobaldo’s character and
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intention to show lack of concern. Of the various Libras options for a negating
sign, we chose the sign with an ‘O’ handshape that suggests ‘zero’, to echo the
sign NADA meaning ‘nothing’ in the earlier “nonada”.
DEUS ESTEJA.
“God be praised.” (translation James Taylor and Harriet de Onís, 1963) or
perhaps “Praise be.”
The location of God in this incomplete phrase is of considerable
importance to the central theme of the book, as it questions where God and the
devil are. Is God in heaven, near to us on earth or inside the person? In Libras, all
signs need a location, so the translator needs to choose the location of this sign
carefully. We decided to locate the sign GOD in its conventional place above the
head, suggesting God-in-heaven, but moving the sign for GOD’S-BEING slowly
and with a thoughtful facial expression towards the signer’s body, but in an ill-
defined way before coming to a thoughtful stop. Thus, we hoped to capture
something of the doubt about where God might be, and to reflect that
incompleteness of the phrase.
CONCLUSIONS
In this short consideration of the literary translation of just the title and first
sentence of “Grande Sertão: Veredas” into Libras, we have seen the benefit of
taking a close reading approach to the translation. We show the importance of a
deep understanding of the literary processes that create aesthetic, culturally
valued works in Libras, and we have shown, perhaps most importantly, that a
work as linguistically complex as this can be represented in Libras.
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Rachel Sutton-Spence
SuttonSpence@gmail.com
Recebido em: 12/9/2017
Aceito em: 10/2/2018
Publicado em Abril de 2018
Revista da Anpoll v. 1, nº 44, p. 192-206, Florianópolis, Jan./Abr. 2018 206You can also read
